Particular stats are meaningful to those who feel particular stats are meaningful. QED.
Seriously though, you think "total team credits" are important, right? Why? Because you think so? Or because you think others think so? Or...?
There are an infinite ways to measure a marshmallow. Is there a right way? Most popular? Most logical?
I could propose the worst method: A progressive (regressive?) method that applies a correction factor so that we all end up with the same score... Oh yeah, the DA method.